The 42nd Gecko

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Expensive Noodle Shop

---

"Aaah.. Clever wordplay but I am afraid there is few problems." Da-xia paused thoughtfully at Hanako's request.

"Getting eaten is more of a second date sort of thing no? If I was to volunteer myself, I would want a chaperone that I trusted. Sadly, with me being a foreigner... Well, I do not have a lot of local friends right now." She finished before taking a sip of her soup.

"I suppose in summary, I am not opposed to the idea, but I am unable to offer at the moment. I see no reason to act aggressively towards you two out of blind hate and fear, but I do not yet trust you THAT much." Da-Xia sums up before returning her attention to her noodles.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Expensive Noodle Shop

---

Da-Xia Chen rode off the scene with a much more leisurely pace than she had entered it. Still slightly on fire, but overall a more comfortable ride for her passengers. And while it was a cold night to be riding a motorcycle, fortunately they were a ghost, daemon, and Canadian.

"You lavish me with your praise! Da-Xia is my name. Would you grace me with yours?" Da-xia beamed under the attention, but her knightly demeanor took a bit of a hit, when, given both her hands were in use, she accepted the deserts by simply chomping down on one with her teeth after asking for their names.

"Mmmph." She tapped the rear of her lance against a storage compartment, popping it open fore Hanako to put the shattered gun away in.

"Oooh, you guys speak French? Neat! I'm not from one of the French speaking parts of Canada, but I've tried to learn it a few times. It uh, never went very well." Da-Xia spoke up after finishing her croissant.

Then came a fateful text, and a foul mood came over Da-Xia. Da-Xia texted back to the whole group. I can respect that you wish me not to return with a demon in tow, if you are unprepared to face a single demon at the heart of your strength. However! My code of honor cannot abide the execution of a demon who did not engage us in battle and surrendered peacably. If you seek me out, you shall face me in battle.

It seems the would-be knight had a very different interpretation of events than others.

Da-Xia spoke over her shoulder to the pair. "Hmph, it seems my fellows have been so unmanned by this night that a single demon unnerves them. Bah, I say! The only fear this night holds for me is a chilly nose. What say you to some hearty soup to add some warmth and substance to your deserts?" Da-Xia changed from her path back to the base to instead, find a noodle shop still plying its trade to ward away the cold of the snow. And what a noodle shop she chose. A fancy place where the average menu item was upwards of 3000 yen. "Choose what you like! It's my treat."

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Yurei Infested Warehouse

---

Biff. Pow. Whammo. Meow? All these sounds and more exited from the tussle between the foolhardy knight and collosal treant.

After what was no doubt a heroic clash filled with daring feats of great strength and skill, they broke apart, and Da-Xia finally took a moment to take stock of the situation.

"Is anyone else hearing ghost who is not super clear on how many heads snake has?" Da-Xia looked round herself for the voice, but did not quite make it out. The police where here now and before that, there was an even more pressing matter. Two maidens in distress, entreating her for rescue! Or at least, so it seemed to Da-Xia.

"Da-Xia will always lend a hand to those in need!" Da-Xia pulled up in front of the pair. Da-Xia was positively glowing with excitement to be staging a heroic rescue. And also positively glowing because she was slightly on fire, a patch of bark caught in her jacket being aflame. "Fair maidens, mount up, and hold fast!" She thundered with lance held heavenward, gleaming in the firelight. Presuming the pair came aboard, Da-Xia would hasten to carry them from the battlefield.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Yurei Infested Warehouse

---

"Lo, come and face your-" Da-Xia raised her lance to the first Yurei that dared approach her. Before a bang rang out and it was shot in the head, ragdolling instantly to the ground.

"Very well then, you shall-" Da-Xia shifted, tilting towards another target daring to breach her ring of flame, before an arrow dug deep into its heart, sending it kneeling into the fire, clutching for its rapidly escaping life force.

A voice boomed from outside, praising her entrance.

"Ah, thank you! I shall endeavor to live up to your expectations and beyond!" She tipped her lance in that direction, nodding, before turning her attention to the next oncoming beast. "I shall then take you as my first-" A dagger stabbed through its skull.

"Vexation!" Da-Xia wildly waved her lance in the air, as the next yurei was turned to ash by demonic flame.

Then, with a great rumbling cracking and smashing and rumbling, a treant made itself known and declared its own challenge. Da-Xia, of course, reacted instantly with the most appropriate and logical response.

She let loose the full power of her monstrous bike, her blazing hot rubber tearing for every scrap of purchase to send her hurtling towards the great treant, lowering her lance to joust the monstrous being.

As the catwalk was hurled at her, Da-Xia did not flinch or shy, but kept going full speed ahead. With impeccable timing and riding skill, she sharply turned at the last moment to slide under it as the metal bounced off the floor in front of her, creating just enough height for it to mostly pass above her but for a few scrapes and gouges. The bike was designed to collide with demons, and could take more than that, and Da-Xia had far too much adrenaline to feel pain for now.

Nearly crashing into a wall, Da-Xia just barely managed to pull it back over and instead turn the other way, to strike at the treant like a bolt of lightning, complete with the little zig-zag pattern in her approach. Straightforward in her strike, she sought to bury her lance deep into the plant's 'chest'?

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia Chen

Yurei Infested Warehouse

---

There was the hum of an engine, muffled by the wintry snow, and the wet crunch of tires pressing through the slush and gravel. This was the only warning before one of the wooden bay doors exploded, Da-Xia bursting through the paltry barrier on her bike. Her momentum carried her forward and she began to skid in a screaming circle of burning rubber through the middle of the bay. One hand held a broken gas can, centrifugal force sending a pungent but familiar liquid sloshing outwards, while the other held her lance out and low, the tip screeching and sparking against the stone and steel floor. As Da-Xia finished her maneuver, she had arms spread wide, encircled by a wall of gasoline flames.

"Justice has come for you! Da-Xia will now face those of you brave enough to battle, or ride you down as you flee!" Da-Xia challenged the whole room with unshakeable confidence.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia

-

Appearance

Name: Da-Xia Chen
Age: 20
Division: Canadian Branch
Class: Devil Bringer

Weaponry
Da-Xia wields a lance, perhaps a bit too enamored of chivalric tales of old.

Abilities

• Skilled Motorcycle Rider and decent mechanic. Can usually get her bike to limp home on occasion she wrecks.
• Fast Reader. She gets through those novels quick.
• She's decent with a lance, but is certainly no master. Point lance towards monster, and let her riding skills do the rest.
• Her greatest weakness is lack of experience or confidence fighting dismounted. At 20, she has not been a Devil Bringer long.

Personality
Da-Xia sees herself as an ideal chivalric knight, roaming the land to right wrongs and slay evils, protecting the innocent folk of the world. This comes with a measure of pompous haughtiness and reckless overconfidence, but also overflowing generosity and unshakable courage. She goes above and beyond the call to a point most would raise an eyebrow at what she's trying to prove. If she wasn't about to loudly tell them that she's trying to prove, that she's an ideal chivalric knight.

Still young, Da-Xia often dreams of true love. These dreams are fed by her prodigious consumption of knightly romances, more of this genre alone than most people have read books in total, and it is rare to find her without at least one in her pack and several hundred on her smartphone's wishlist. She's envisions herself as the shining white knight who will come and save some beautiful young man in desperate need. Though sometimes she finds the roles switched, imagining herself being rescued. Greatly confusing to the already confused youth, but she's more than happy to lance a monster or two to get her head back on straight.

Background
What is a person with a very Chinese name, from the Canadian Division, doing in Japan? Well, in the beginning Da-Xia was born to a wealthy Chinese family in Canada. Whether by luck or internal strength of character, she didn't grow up so much spoiled as idealistic. She read lots of English stories about knights and fell in love over and over again. For a time, she thought that riding her bike on long cross-country stretches, and Canada is a pretty big country to stretch across, was as close as she'd ever come to adventure.

But, on one of her many ventures down a dark dismal road through the wilderness, Da-Xia encountered a devil. Fortunately, she had the luck to encounter it at the same time as a Devil Bringer, and thus did not summarily become lunch. From there, she decided it was her noble calling to join the DHA and become a true knight! She has had little experience since then and is still a novice. She was sent over to Japan to help with the recent surge of Youkai, as a way to send a token of assistance without actually sending anyone particularly valuable.

Inventory

• A monstrous bike that Da-Xia uses to compensate for her lack of personal mobility.
• A backup knife, it also serves as the key for her bike.
• Smartphone. She has a mount for it on the dash of her bike.
• Smart Contact-Lenses that provide flash-protection and sunglasses function. Good for dramatically staring into the sunset.
• Smart Earplugs that provide gunfire-protection and tuning out loud repetitive noises like her engines.
• Food, water, and medical supplies kept in a compartment in her bike. She must ever be ready to help those in need.
• Knightly romance novels, usually snuck into the above compartment.
• Skid and burn resistant suit. Da-Xia's suit isn't going to protect her from monsters, but helps for monster-induced crashes.

Tower of Fable

Rather than attempt to hold the net, Caprice simply... let it go. The wolf smashed into it, pulling it away from the wall and tangling itself up. Caprice brought her hands up to her mask, one finger tapping on each side of the mask, alternating in rhythm as she looked curiously at the wolf as if to wonder how it could have gotten there.

Then, she turned to the true Hound of the House with a large grin before she winked and stuck out her tongue.

For all her antics, she had little desire to speak at this point. She felt no difference between one path forward or another, so why not let her fine 'companions' bargain amongst themselves on whether to take Garou's offer.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Da-Xia

-

Appearance

Name: Da-Xia Chen
Age: 20
Division: Canadian Branch
Class: Devil Bringer

Weaponry
Da-Xia wields a lance, perhaps a bit too enamored of chivalric tales of old.

Abilities

• Skilled Motorcycle Rider and decent mechanic. Can usually get her bike to limp home on occasion she wrecks.
• Fast Reader. She gets through those novels quick.
• She's decent with a lance, but is certainly no master. Point lance towards monster, and let her riding skills do the rest.
• Her greatest weakness is lack of experience or confidence fighting dismounted. At 20, she has not been a Devil Bringer long.

Personality
Da-Xia sees herself as an ideal chivalric knight, roaming the land to right wrongs and slay evils, protecting the innocent folk of the world. This comes with a measure of pompous haughtiness and reckless overconfidence, but also overflowing generosity and unshakable courage. She goes above and beyond the call to a point most would raise an eyebrow at what she's trying to prove. If she wasn't about to loudly tell them that she's trying to prove, that she's an ideal chivalric knight.

Still young, Da-Xia often dreams of true love. These dreams are fed by her prodigious consumption of knightly romances, more of this genre alone than most people have read books in total, and it is rare to find her without at least one in her pack and several hundred on her smartphone's wishlist. She's envisions herself as the shining white knight who will come and save some beautiful young man in desperate need. Though sometimes she finds the roles switched, imagining herself being rescued. Greatly confusing to the already confused youth, but she's more than happy to lance a monster or two to get her head back on straight.

Background
What is a person with a very Chinese name, from the Canadian Division, doing in Japan? Well, in the beginning Da-Xia was born to a wealthy Chinese family in Canada. Whether by luck or internal strength of character, she didn't grow up so much spoiled as idealistic. She read lots of English stories about knights and fell in love over and over again. For a time, she thought that riding her bike on long cross-country stretches, and Canada is a pretty big country to stretch across, was as close as she'd ever come to adventure.

But, on one of her many ventures down a dark dismal road through the wilderness, Da-Xia encountered a devil. Fortunately, she had the luck to encounter it at the same time as a Devil Bringer, and thus did not summarily become lunch. From there, she decided it was her noble calling to join the DHA and become a true knight! She has had little experience since then and is still a novice. She was sent over to Japan to help with the recent surge of Youkai, as a way to send a token of assistance without actually sending anyone particularly valuable.

Inventory

• A monstrous bike that Da-Xia uses to compensate for her lack of personal mobility.
• A backup knife, it also serves as the key for her bike.
• Smartphone. She has a mount for it on the dash of her bike.
• Smart Contact-Lenses that provide flash-protection and sunglasses function. Good for dramatically staring into the sunset.
• Smart Earplugs that provide gunfire-protection and tuning out loud repetitive noises like her engines.
• Food, water, and medical supplies kept in a compartment in her bike. She must ever be ready to help those in need.
• Knightly romance novels, usually snuck into the above compartment.
• Skid and burn resistant suit. Da-Xia's suit isn't going to protect her from monsters, but helps for monster-induced crashes.

Tower of Fable

"But of course, what clown doesn't love a straightman?" Caprice answered Kanbaru with a flourishing bow, waving Kanbaru forward as she quick dashed past.

Caprice pranced out of the way of the incoming wolf helpfully provided for her by Clair. As her cloak flitted out of the way like a matador's cape, it revealed that she had forged a candy net between herself and the wall. The wolf's momentum pulled it back and back, Caprice's boots digging into the rug she was standing on. And then the wolf was snapped back, sent flying back the way it came. Caprice's aim was to fling it in front of Clair so that her Starshot could handle the problem.

"Hmm? Another person seems to be talking to something imperceptible. Maybe crazy invisible nuns are real, and both Akiko and Kanbaru can see them?" Caprice wondered at Akiko's actions.

Caprice didn't seem to pay the butler much heed.

Tower of Fable

Caprice did not bother giving introductions to the newcomer, it seemed Akiko had set herself upon that task. Instead she simply gazed at the hallways they found themselves in. She hadn't made it quite this far on her last adventure, instead being dumped into an underground lake before making it through the garden. But it seemed they were starting past that point this time.

"Last time this place was little else but traps and monsters. Though, after the dreary doubletalk of that 'school', I almost find myself nostalgic for such straightforward simplicity." Caprice juggled small sets of cards two or three at a time as she looked around. She simply poked her nose in wherever she felt like checking. For her talk of traps, she didn't seem too worried about springing any.